Red is not allowed to go into the woods. Everyone knows that they are dangerous – because of their strange magic and the wolves that lurk there… But Red finds herself increasingly drawn to the woods and the place where her grandmother disappeared without a trace three years ago. When the woodcutter fails to return home one night and wolves are spotted close to the village boundary, fear drives a deep and dangerous divide between the villagers and the nature they live alongside.

Only Red seems to hold the key – but she has a secret, and exposing it could ruin her family forever …

This is a great book! I love retakes of fairy tales and this is a fab. interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood - what if her grandmother *was* the wolf? Great disability rep (author is visually impaired), honest discussion of periods, wonderful world building, excellent feminist magic. #KidLitUK

Graphic fantasy take on Red Riding Hood
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Take Red Riding Hood, wolves, Grandma, the forbidden woods, woodcutters and axes; add visual impairment and a feminist perspective; then shake to destruction and remix, rewrite and reframe; and O’Brien has given us a new take on Red with a strong Animal Wife vibe full of witchy empowerment. To say much more would give the whole game away, but it’s enough to say that I thought this was more YA in its graphic violence so it might not suit all early teens.

I thought Wolf Siren was a really great read full of magic and mystery. It’s loosely based on (perhaps inspired by?) Little Red Riding hood and follows the main character of Red who lives on the edge of the woods. These woods are dangerous and men in particular never venture there because of disappearances and stories of what lurks in the woods but Red is intrigued and wants to learn more.

There’s a great family secret at the heart of the book and that forms most of the plot - to share it here would be to spoil to surprise when reading, but it really drives why the men are the ones in the most danger. Red was a plucky character, often going against the instructions of the adults around her but she had incredible bravery and courage and a desire to find out the truth. There was also lots of commentary on society and who makes the decisions around who can and can’t be included - there’s lots to explore and discuss here.

I thought it was a lovely read - great for anyone who loves Little Red Riding hood or imagines what happened to her outside of the traditional tale. Definitely a great one for fans of a fairy tale re-telling!

“None of us were harmed by the wolves. Not once. Many resented us for this. It was as though in not being attacked we’d exposed a weakness the men didn’t want to admit to.”

Wolf Siren was such a great little book! It is sold as Middle Grade but honestly no matter how old you are, there are things to enjoy. The story took me into the woods and I couldn’t stop until the end. Little Red Riding Hood is one of my favorite tales, but I have to say that this retelling was particularly interesting. I loved how it mixes ecology, emancipation, societal questioning and disabilities (with positive representation). About that last point, the author’s note about her own visual impairment, and how she analyzes the tale through this lens is brilliant. This is the take for Red here, and I loved how the way she feels the world was described, how it gives her a different sensibility to the world but is also a source of challenge. That balance, and the fact that it took me a few pages to realize is –IMO– one of the book’s strengths. It is carried by the writing, immersive and sensitive, and translates with a beautiful relationship to nature, some “primal” sensations that you can feel while reading. That balance feels like one of the important themes of the story and is told with a lot of tact… but also hardness.

I also loved the patriarchal society, and how men are dependent on women for their own safety and completely reject that, trying to blame the girls and take more power anyway. That truly is an interesting way to address toxic masculinity and abuse.
I also loved how the author uses menstruations as a part of her worldbuilding and to enhance her metaphor of the passage to adulthood. It isn’t something that is often dealt with, and I loved all the discourse around it.
It was such an interesting read !

Thank you to Harper Fire and the author for the eARC on NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

I thought this was a beautifully written retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, full of magic and mystery. The world building was excellent, it was vivid and convincing, full of interesting characters particularly the women. I enjoyed the strong environmental message and the mystery was well done. For someone who has a sight impairment, I also loved the main character, Red, who also has a sight impairment. It was really well done and definately empowering.
My only issue was that sometimes the pace dragged a little in odd places. Overall this was a deliciously daek fairytale with hidden depths that makde this am enthralling read.

Dark, atmospheric and thought provoking. I loved this book. I thought it would be more fairy tale like and it wasn't; it was so much better. Red is blind and isn't allowed into the woods because it's not safe. When her grandmother returns after years away, Red becomes more and more intrigued and things start to change for her. She makes decisions that she wouldn't have made before and begins to find herself. There are light, tender moments and some really dark moments. A super read for anyone who likes a book that they can't stop thinking about long after they've read it.

Red lives in a village surrounded by woods. Only women are allowed into the woods because the wolves only attack men but the village major limits their movements and freedom. Red has limited vision but feels at home in the trees which respond and guide her. When her period arrives it heralds a much bigger transformation. Deeper family secrets will be unearthed and the fate of Red and her family will hang in the balance.

I loved everything about this book. The author was inspired by interpreting the original story of little red riding hood as the protagonist having limited vision like herself and that idea birthed this wonderfully original story. This is a story about women and how they are controlled and coerced. Red has a wonderful connection with the trees and the wolves of the forest but she and any other women who dare to claim any freedom are punished by the village. There are strong messages in here about how we treat nature and the importance of sustainable living. There are very complex mother daughter relationships at play between Red and her mother and the enigmatic presence of her grandmother. I loved that it describes the logistics of Red’s period when it arrives - something rarely mentioned in children’s books and yet so important to be visible. This is a compelling and beautifully written story, dark, mysterious and magical.

Red is known as such for the colour of her hair. She lives with her mother - Magenta -, sister Aerona and brother Luki. They live in a town that is bordered by forest - but the town is surrounded by a fence, with only a gate into it. The gate has a Wolf Siren tower next to it.

Only women go into the forest at all, and only women guard the tower. Usually the only person in the forest is Caragh - the woodcutter - a lowly job which was given to her by the Mayor - after she turned down his offer of marriage! The men live in fear of being attacked by the Wolves that lived in the forest although no one has seen or heard them, and the tower alarm has not been sounded for many years. Red's own father was killed by a Wolf.

One day in the forest, which she isn't scared by despite her visual impairment, she meets an old woman who says she is her Grandmother, Red takes her home. Magenta is not happy but accepts her mother in - she left when Magenta was just 14.

Grandmother loves the forest as much as Red. She shows Red there is nothing to be afraid of, she even calls four wolves to Red's side and says they will protect her. But that she should say nothing to her Mother about this! Grandmother also gives her a red cloak.
But why did Grandmother leave her own child? And why does she leave again when Red feels so close to her?

As she is delivering a parcel one day to Ms Blaeberry (a supposed witch who lives in the forest, and who lots of women visit) Red feels ill/ What is happening to her?
Ms Blaeberry explains to Red about what has happened to her, and about her Grandmother. And that this could happen to Aerona too. Red is angry does her mother know, why did she not tell them. The village must never find out.
But then Caragh is killed, supposedly by a wolf. But Red finds her and brings her out from the forest. This changes everything. The Mayor is unhappy with Red spending so much time in the forest, and with the fact that she says she saw Caragh that day, that the forest allowed her in and she found Caragh's body. They want to banish Red. The girls are listening to the village meeting because Delana, Red's best friend, told her about it. But something unexpected happens to Aerona, they have to run....
In the forest they meet Grandmother. Aerona is so happy! Red follows the trees which have all fallen from where Caragh was found to a piece of broken fencing - where they also find the dead wolf shot by Zac.
Who really killed Caragh?
Can the girls ever return?

Beth O'Brien is like Red visually impaired. She has looked at the Red Riding Hood story differently. Surely you would only see a Wolf in your grandmother's bed you could not actually see very well. She says she has smiled at strangers who look like family members she is meeting and failed to recognise friends and family when meeting them unexpectedly!
Red in the story is a strong child, she wants to do what is right by her family. But she also feels drawn to protect the forest and the wolves.
I really enjoyed this, and even better only 165 pages, meaning it would not be of a size that is off putting for some children.

It took me a little while to get into this, but I eventually enjoyed this dark, feminist retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.

I really enjoyed this beautiful gothic retelling of red riding hood. I don't want to say too much, I would highly recommend Wolf Siren. Well done on your debut novel :)

Oh, how I loved Wolf Siren - a dark and gritty fairytale retelling in which Little Red is a visually impaired girl traversing a divided landscape: a forest sheltering wolves, her village sheltering worse. Chauvenism is rife, and there are dark intentions around every corner. There are wolves in the woods, but are they the real monsters?

WOLF SIREN is an #ownvoices story, and the protagonist is powerfully depicted. While listed as children’s fiction, I think that older readers (including adults) will find their own power within these pages.

An ethereal but powerful reworking of Red Riding Hood, reframed from a feminist, eco-friendly perspective.. Beautifully written with a real fairytale feel, and with an authentic own voices representation which adds a fascinating extra layer to the story.

This is one of those books that just feels so deep and meaningful. It has a story to tell and a lesson we need to learn.
Beautifully written version of the tale of Little Red Riding hood, but with a lot of differences. I especially loved that Red was visually impaired (as the author says at the end, perhaps this explains why she didn't recognise that there was a wolf in her grandmothers clothing). She finds her way around despite her vision being low, she had friends that help her when they can, and of course the odd bully who can't help but mock her.
But soon Red discovers there is more to her family and village than just a fear of the woods and wolves, something much deeper and darker is going on.
I adored this book. I found it so moving, especially towards the end.
I loved so many aspects of the story, but I don't want to say too much, as it gives away some of the best parts of the story!
Just give it a read, I don't think you'll regret it.

Wow! This was so much better than I thought it might be. It was deliciously dark, dangerous and a refreshing new perspective on the familiar children's story. Lots of fantastic vocabulary choices and clever character traits which ensured I was hooked from beginning to end.
Highly recommended.

This story is not so much a re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood, but is inspired by the original. Protagonist Red is a teenage girl who feels called to the woods. In a patriarchal society where the forest poses a danger to the menfolk of her village, voicing such a desire is the ultimate taboo. But when the stability of village life is threatened, Red feels she must answer that call.

I’d usually start with what I liked about a book, but I’m going to do the opposite this time, as there wasn’t really much that I didn’t enjoy. If I had to be picky, I would have preferred a pacier start to the story and a more satisfying resolution regarding the Mayor and Nova. But that’s about it.

Now on to what I loved. The story was very evocative of old fairytales, both in the descriptions of the settings and the language. The character names were great, and I really enjoyed the nod to the language patterning in the original fairytale. Unsurprisingly for a fairytale, there is magic. Some is very subtle and the characters barely register it, rather accepting it’s something that just is. Other examples of magic are rather more dramatic.

Significantly for me as a sight-impaired person, Red’s own sight impairment was handled brilliantly by the author and clearly came from a place of experience. In too many stories, a character’s disability IS the story. In others, the disability is brushed under the carpet like it doesn’t matter, which is clearly not the case when you’re living with a disability. Red is limited in some ways because of her sight impairment. But the author does not make this a way to pity Red (there are certainly other ways you feel sorry for her). Instead, Red gets by in her own way, sometimes with a little help, as is often the way in real life. Plus she has many other qualities that are just as, if not more, important a part of who she is. Crucially for me, though, without giving too much away, there is a part in the story where some magic happens and it would have been very easy for the author to ‘fix’ Red’s sight impairment. She does not. And I was really pleased about this because it sends the message that Red’s disability is who she is, not what the story is about. In actual fact, there’s a lovely irony that, out of all the villagers, Red is the only one able to clearly ‘see’ what is happening and what needs to be done.

This is a really lovely, yet emotional read with depictions of grief and menstruation. Suitable for mature upper key stage 2 readers and above.
Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This is a reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood. There is a girl in a red coat, a grandmother, a woodcutter and wolves in a wood, but there the similarities end, this is a very different story.
Red lives in a village ruled by a mayor who favours those who please him. Having lost lots of men to the wolves in the woods only women (who seem to be safe) are allowed to enter the woods, but this is seen as a punishment. Red often sneaks into the woods feeling at home and at peace among the trees who watch over her. It is there she meets her missing grandmother and starts to find out bits about her heritage.
It is quite a dark book- life in the village is oppressive and the woods are dangerous..Despite this, Red still manages to find joy in the world around her. She is partially sighted and her descriptions of how she perceives the world are at times almost poetical.
Ultimately this a story about fighting for what is right and about protecting the fragile ecology around us. I would have liked to have had a bit more about consequences for the mayor, who is built up as the big bad at the start, but I did like that the ending didn’t play out quite as I expected. A good debut novel.

Wolf Siren is a captivatingly dark reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood. The narrative skillfully keeps you guessing: the story explores the complex relationship between villagers and wolves, highlighting how fear and manipulation can divide a community. Red's journey of self-discovery, despite her visual impairment, her determination to uncover the truth driving the narrative and challenging societal norms, give food for thought to anyone reading (particularly in current times).

O'Brien subverts traditional tropes, empowering the female characters and exploring themes of resilience. The writing is evocative and haunting, full of twists and turns, and the interconnectedness of Red, the wolves, and the woods is portrayed beautifully.

While aimed at younger readers, Wolf Siren will appeal to anyone who enjoys a well-crafted fairy tale with a dark, feminist twist. It's a thought-provoking exploration of power, prejudice, and challenging norms.

If you think that reimagined tales of Little Red Riding Hood have been done to death, this one will change your mind. It reflects a lot of contemporary values such as feminism, environmental protection and inclusivity. It is a thought-provoking take on the original story that renders the original tale more relevant to our current context.

Red is in some minor ways the chaperone rouge you know, and in most other ways, entirely reinvented, has agency, and more appeal.
The story world and the wolves do too.
I had not expected this to be so competent for both adult and young (MG) readers.
Cannot wait to share it with my child and gift it to friends’ children in a couple of years.
A cool take on The Little Red Riding Hood.
The prose is suitable for a children’s book.
The storyworld and the plot are much more immersive.